The instant invention relates a maternity apparatus and more particularly to an effective, self-operated, manual breast pump for a mother of a young infant.
It is well recognized that mother's milk is preferable to other foods, such as cow's milk or various feeding formulas for feeding infants. However, it is also well recognized that it is often not practical for mothers to breast feed their infant children over prolonged periods of time. As a result, various types of pumping devices have been heretofore developed for extracting mother's milk from the breasts of mothers of young children.
A number of different types of devices, including both electrical and manual breast pumps, have been heretofore available for extracting mother's milk from the breasts of women. In this regard, however, electrically operated breast pumps which operate on standard house current have generally been found to be impractical as being costly and awkward to transport. Battery-powered electrical pumps have also been found to be costly, and they have generally been found to be less effective than other types of breast pumps. As a result, even though many of the heretofore available hand operated pumps have been found to be awkward and tedious to use, they have generally been found to be less costly and more practical than electrically operated breast pumps.
Manually operated breast pumps representing closest prior to the subject invention of which the applicant is aware are disclosed in the U.S. Patent to Halstead, U.S. Pat. Nos. 790,051; Howell No. 897,289; Del Castillo, 1,484,874; Brown, 1,509,226; Saunders, 2,419,795; Loyd, 3,782,385; Adams 4,263,.912; Adams, 4,323,067; Diamond 4,311,141; Buechel et al, 4,400,168; Kirchner 4,583,970; Hobbs 4,813,932; Yuan et al, 4,892,517; Corby 4,983,634 and Riedwegetal, 5,009,638 and the British patents Nos. 762,701; 2,082,920; 2,127,293. However, while these references disclose a wide variety of different manually operated devices, they fail to provide a simple breast pump which is practical, relatively inexpensive to the manufacture and easy to operate.
The instant invention provides a highly effective breast pump which is effective and easy to operate for extracting mother's milk from the breasts of a woman and which is also adapted to be constructed at a relatively low cost. Specifically, the instant invention provides an effective self-operated breast pump which is adapted for easy and effective single-handed operation. Still more specifically, the instant invention provides a breast pump comprising a pump body including a breast engaging portion which faces in a first direction, a base portion, a breast milk receiving container on the base portion and a one way valve between the pump body and the container. The breast pump further includes a piston and cylinder assembly comprising a cylinder which communicates with the interior of the pump body, a piston in the cylinder and a seal between the piston and the cylinder. The piston and cylinder assembly is arranged so that the piston is movable in the cylinder in a second direction which is substantially opposite to the first direction for applying a vacuum to the interior of the pump body. The piston includes a thumb receiving element for moving the piston in the second direction in the cylinder, and the pump further includes a handle on the pump body which is adapted to be received in a hand of a user for drawing the piston in the second direction using a thumb on the same hand which is received in the thumb receiving element. The handle preferably includes a fixed handle element which extends in substantially perpendicular relation to the second direction and which is normally spaced from the thumb receiving element so that the handle element can be effectively utilized for enabling a user to draw the piston in the second direction with a thumb on the users hand received in the thumb receiving element. The breast pump preferably further comprises a resiliently bendable elongated band which is operative for resiliently biasing the piston in substantially the first direction in the cylinder with a relatively light, substantially uniform biasing force. The resilient band is constructed so that it is movable from first reduced partially bent position to a second increased partially bent position during movement of the piston from a forward first position in the cylinder to a rearward second position therein. Further, the piston is preferably dimensioned so that it is normally spaced from the side wall of the cylinder, and it is normally guided in its travel in the cylinder by the seal which extends between the piston and the cylinder and the thumb ring by which it is pulled.
It has been found that the breast pump of the instant invention can be effectively operated for extracting milk from a breast of a female user. Specifically, it has been found that because the breast pump includes a piston and cylinder assembly comprising a piston which is directly moveable in a direction away from an operator with a thumb on a hand of the operator by drawing the thumb toward a handle element, the piston and cylinder assembly can be simply and easily operated for extracting mother's milk from a breast of the operator. In this regard, because the device is operated by merely drawing the thumb receiving element toward the handle element by moving a thumb on a hand of the operator toward the fingers on the same hand, the device can be comfortably operated for reciprocating the piston in the cylinder to extract mother's milk from a breast of the operator. Further, because the breast pump includes a resilient spring element which is operative for biasing the piston in the first direction with a substantially constant biasing face, the amount of resistance to movement of the piston in the second direction by an operator of the device can be maintained at a minimal level to enable the device to be even more easily manipulated by the operator. Still further, because the handle element is positioned in substantially perpendicular relation to the direction in which the breast engaging portion faces, the handle element can be more easily and comfortably grasped by an operator during use of the device.
Accordingly, it is primary object of the instant invention to provide a self-operated breast pump which is adapted for comfortable, single-handed operation.
Another object of the instant invention is to provide an effective breast pump which is easy to manipulate for extracting mother's milk from a breast of an operator.
An even still further object of the instant invention is provide a breast pump comprising a cylinder and a piston which is movable in the cylinder by directly moving the piston in a direction outwardly and away from the operator for applying a vacuum to a breast of the operator.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.